India-Singapore Green Shipping Corridor: A Case Study in Supplying 1M+ Tonnes per Year of Biomethanol from 2030

Novel Biofuels, ACTUAL, and Maharashtra presented the largest planned supply position on a corridor anchored by India's 7Mt/yr green methanol export potential

SINGAPORE, June 1, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Novel Biofuels, ACTUAL, and the Government of Maharashtra announced a commitment of more than one million tonnes of biomethanol available from 2030 to serve global shipping lines seeking secure, long-term access to clean maritime fuel. The announcement was made on April 21 during Singapore Maritime Week 2026.

The commitment establishes the largest contracted supply position on the India–Singapore Green Shipping Corridor, a route on which industrial-scale supply at this volume has until now been absent.

The event convened officials with direct authority over the corridor on both sides: Vijay Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India; Dr. Shilpak Ambule, High Commissioner of India to Singapore; Dr. P. Anbalagan, IAS, Principal Secretary (Industries), Government of Maharashtra; and Tan Hoe Soon, Assistant Chief Executive (Strategy), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

According to a study conducted by RMI, an independent U.S.-headquartered global think-tank, the Rotterdam–VOC–Singapore corridor could support a combined demand of 7 million tonnes per year (MTPA) of green methanol by 2030.


THE PROJECT: INDIA'S FIRST SOVEREIGN FUEL CORRIDOR

The Novel Gadchiroli Biomethanol Project, co-developed by Novel Biofuels and ACTUAL with the formal backing of the Government of Maharashtra, is India's first sovereign fuel corridor: a Maharashtra–Singapore biomethanol supply route delivering a minimum of 1 MTPA of sovereign biomethanol from 2030.

Fuel pathway. Bamboo biomass gasification to methanol, using Tier 1 technology. Front-end engineering and design (FEED) is underway in 2026.

Feedstock infrastructure (state-underwritten). The project sits on degraded, deforested land in Chandrapur-Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. Bamboo is a perennial crop that regenerates from its own root system without replanting, converting idle land into a permanent revenue-generating industrial feedstock base while restoring ecological value. The supply chain is governed under a 20-year framework anchored in the Maharashtra Bamboo Industry Policy and long-term state-backed farmer contracts.


WHY SINGAPORE IS THE RIGHT DEMAND ANCHOR

Singapore sold a record nearly 60 million tonnes of bunker fuel in 2025, the largest volume of any port in the world, supplying over one-sixth of the total fuel consumed by global shipping. Roughly a quarter of global seaborne trade transits through Singapore.

Operators including Maersk and CMA CGM have ordered nearly 40 methanol-capable vessels between them, with over 150 low-carbon ships targeted by 2029. These bets mean that Novel Biofuels is entering a market where the demand is already building.


STATEMENTS

"Energy sovereignty is industrial sovereignty. Maharashtra has chosen to produce, control, and price its own clean fuel, and the India–Singapore Green Corridor is the institutional expression of that choice. We are proud to stand fully and formally behind Novel Biofuels and the bamboo-to-biomethanol plant. Shipping lines operating on this corridor are welcome to bunker and refuel in Maharashtra on terms that only a sovereign supply chain can offer."
— Dr. P. Anbalagan, IAS, Principal Secretary (Industries, Investment and Services), Government of Maharashtra

"We set out to prove that India can build clean fuel infrastructure that the world can depend on, and Novel Gadchiroli is the proof. Bamboo grown on degraded land in Maharashtra, under 20-year contracts with Indian farmers, processed in an Indian plant, delivered to global shipping through a corridor two governments have committed to."
— Dinesh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Novel Biofuels

"This is a story about partnership. Singapore has the infrastructure and the demand, and India has the land, the resource, and the industrial capacity. Together they anchor the Green Corridor, and the Novel Gadchiroli project is what the Corridor looks like in practice: a sovereign, integrated supply chain from bamboo grown on Indian soil to biomethanol exported through Singapore, built on the strongest bilateral relationship in this region. For shipping lines, this is long-term access to clean fuel at industrial scale. For investors, the Green Corridor is the shape of the next era of global trade. The producing nations, partners, and capital that move first into sovereign clean fuel corridors will define how the world fuels itself for the next fifty years."
— Aurora Chiste, Senior Vice President of Project Origination, ACTUAL


ABOUT THE INDIA-SINGAPORE GREEN AND DIGITAL SHIPPING CORRIDOR

The Green and Digital Shipping Corridor (GDSC) is a bilateral initiative established under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of India and the Government of Singapore, witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in New Delhi on 4 September 2025. The MoU builds on a Letter of Intent signed in March 2025 and forms part of the Roadmap for the India–Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership adopted on the same date.

The corridor brings together Singapore's position as the world's largest bunkering hub with India's renewable energy capacity and industrial base for producing and exporting alternative marine fuels, to accelerate the maritime sector's transition to zero and near-zero greenhouse gas emission fuels.


ABOUT NOVEL BIOFUELS

Novel Biofuel is a Mumbai-based clean energy company advancing the global energy transition through the production of advanced biofuels for aviation, maritime, and industrial applications, derived from non-food organic feedstocks. Founded by Dinesh Sharma and Shreyas Dinesh Sharma, the company combines deep expertise in gasification, systems engineering, and industrial-scale project execution.

Novel Biofuel operates an integrated, end-to-end value-chain model that aligns feedstock strategy, conversion technology, plant design, logistics, and offtake into a single coordinated platform. By converting regenerative organic materials such as bamboo into low-carbon fuels — including biomethanol and SAF-ready molecules — the company is building scalable energy infrastructure for the emerging low-carbon aviation and maritime fuel economy.


ABOUT ACTUAL

ACTUAL is a San Francisco–based global infrastructure origination engine shaping and scaling high-performance projects across the new energy and industrial economies. Through proprietary technology, ACTUAL integrates science and engineering, policy design, value-chain engineering, and capital structuring into a single origination framework, systematically reducing risk and transforming complex concepts into investable infrastructure. With over USD 20 billion in planned assets, ACTUAL delivers repeatable, deployment-ready industrial systems. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with eight exits, ACTUAL has been recognized by TIME (Best Inventions, 2022) and Fast Company (Innovation by Design, 2023).

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